Love During Robot Fighting Time: Chapter 27

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And now, back to our regularly scheduled nerdy romcom shenanigans!

***

Faith

Fight night came as it always did, with a thunderous roar of a crowd eager to see robots beat the circuits out of each other. Kate was up first, and Zeke and I waited in the dugout while our girlfriend wheeled Polyphemus into place for the roll call. She’d been so damn nervous going into this, her rematch with one of the all-time greats. She looked lovely as she so-often did these days, tucked inside a pair of skinny jeans and form-fitting hot-pink t-shirt with falsies fastened in place underneath. I’d been stunned by her decision to go blonde, but honestly, it was growing on me. My beautiful platinum blonde California girl, with her gorgeous blue eyes and her winning smile and her steadily expanding bust. I sighed dreamily as she entered the blue square. 

“Admiring your Barbie doll?” came a familiar droll. 

My eyes bulged and my head turned so slowly I could practically hear rust scraping off the muscles. There stood Olivia, fresh from her win over Team Jolly Roger, looking smug as hell and infuriatingly hot nonetheless in a long black skirt and solid verdant tank-top. 

Zeke growled, the vein on his neck throbbing as he glared at our former teammate. I pushed aside the flustered arousal I got from him being all macho and protective of me and focused on the task at hand: I’d asked Olivia to come find me before my fight. I needed a damn explanation. “Hey, babe?” I said, putting a hand on his arm. “Could you go get us some sodas?”

He tilted his head quizzically. “You sure?”

“Yeah. I just wanna talk to Liv alone for a sec. Okay?” I said with my sweetest, gentlest voice and expression. 

“Alright,” he said, kissing me on the cheek as he stood up and stomped off into the concessions area outside the main hall. 

I watched him walk away like I always did, only for Olivia to snidely comment, “You enjoying the view?”

I grimaced. “So what if I am? He’s my boyfriend, after all.”

“He has gotten himself a pretty nice butt in the past year. So much hotter now than he used to be,” Olivia said. 

I glared at her. “Well he was always beautiful in my eyes.”

“How touching.”

“Olivia-”

“ROBOTS! ACTIVATE!” trilled the mechanical announcement. 

“- I’d appreciate it if you didn’t openly talk shit about him,” I finished. “Again, he’s my boyfriend.”

Polyphemus shot forward at a steep left angle, veering further and further to the side with each inch it progressed. Pendulum began a slow turn to face Poly, but Poly was too quick, bringing its ax down on the mighty bot’s iron shell. 

It barely made a dent. 

“Are you sure about that?” Olivia asked. 

“What are you getting at?” I said flatly. 

“What do you think?” Olivia said. “Do you really think this whole… Arrangement is gonna end well for you?”

“Why wouldn’t it?”

“C’mon, Faith, you’re not that naive. Calloway is probably going to steal Zeke from you. Hell, she basically already has-”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“And this is just… A temporary reprieve.”

Poly narrowly dodged the onslaught of Pendulum’s primary weapon and poured on an assault of flames, then swung its ax at Pendulum’s right axis. It landed, but didn’t slow Pendulum down as Gregson’s bot simply started shoving Kate’s backward towards the overhead hammer. 

“How dare you?” I said. “After you put Katie in that awful state yesterday- where do you get off?”

“Ain’t my fault she’s so damn fragile,” Olivia said, not bothering to sit down next to me. “She always has been. And given who she’s fighting right now, you’re about to see the proof.”

I gulped as Pendulum pushed Poly directly below the hammer in time for it to crash down on top of poor Poly. One of its flamethrowers was completely obliterated, leading to massive discharge of fuel all over the floor. 

“No!” Kate screamed. 

“See what I mean,” Olivia said. “She’s gonna lose, and she’s gonna fall apart, and you and Zeke will be so busy taking care of her that you’ll wind up losing as well. And that protective streak that Zeke has, that one I can tell you love about him, will wind up pulling him closer and closer to Calloway and further and further from you.”

A hundred thousand nightmares tumbled through my brain all at once, each of them resembling the scenario Olivia had just described. Of Zeke walking away from me and towards Kate, getting further and further away-

“And you’ll be devastated,” Olivia continued. “Not that I understand why. It’s just Zeke.”

My eyes narrowed. “Excuse you?”

The vertical hammer slammed down again as Poly tried to wriggle out of Pendulum’s line of fire, destroying the remaining fuel canister in the process. The acrid stench of gasoline contorted my face even further than Olivia’s disrespectful words.

Oh God, this is it. Kate’s about to lose, I thought. What Olivia was saying… At least one part of it was true. Kate WAS fragile. She’d need a lot of emotional support after a loss like this, especially since it would cost her her sponsorship. And there WAS a small part of me that was dreading the idea of seeing her be like that for potentially months, that feared what it might do to our relationship…

Pendulum’s pendulum launched again as the vertical hammer came down once more, but Poly dodged just in time for the uppercut to meet a downward smash. The vertical hammer was ripped off its hinges and went flying into the air before landing on the battle box floor with a brutally loud thud. Gregson’s uppercut hammer, meanwhile, had some noticeable cracks and chips in it. 

Kate swung her ax, but Gregson reversed and retreated. However, Poly’s ax sparked on the floor and ignited the massive stream of gasoline sitting there. The same gasoline stream Pendulum was backing into. 

Gregson’s jaw was practically on the floor when he saw his bot was wreathed in flames. Kate whooped with joy as she wheeled herself away from the flames, considerably faster and lighter without lugging those fuel canisters around. 

“I believe you were saying something disparaging about my partner,” I said smugly. “About both of them, actually. Lemme ask you something, Liv: why are you doing this?”

“Out of concern for you,” she said instantly. 

“This doesn’t feel like concern, it feels like pity,” I snapped. “And maybe misplaced guilt. And fuck, even a little bit of jealousy.”

“It’s definitely not jealousy,” Olivia said. “You and I are over, no chance of getting back together. And I’m fine with that- I don’t even like girls.”

“But you’re not denying those other two things, I can’t help but notice,” I said. 

And Olivia said nothing. 

Kate drove around to Gregson’s left hand side and smashed her ax into his pendulum right as his burning bot fired it. Both weapons were torn loose and shattered, at which point the fight became a shoving match. Pendulum had stopped burning and was still heavier than Poly, but Kate chose then to unveil her secret weapon: the side-knife I’d suggested she install in case anything happened to her fuel canisters. It swung and jabbed into Gregson’s left axis, jamming it and halting his mobility. 

As the timer ran down on the two bots shoving against each other uselessly, Olivia said, “This doesn’t prove anything.”

“No, but neither has anything you’ve told me,” I said. I wanted to believe it. I had to believe it. Had to have confidence in Kate, both as a competitor and as a person. She was stronger than Olivia realized- hell, Kate was stronger than KATE realized. “I don’t need your pity, and if you need somewhere to put your guilt, you can go to church for that. Or maybe a therapist.”

“AND THAT’S TIME!” Marty Weston screamed. “LOOKS LIKE THIS ONE’S GOING TO THE JUDGES!”

Kate and Gregson both marched over to the judgment area outside the box, waiting for the announcement, both looking like they’d just taken an adrenaline needle to the thigh.

“Look,” Olivia said. “You’re mad. I get it. There’s bad blood. But you can do better than Calloway, and frankly, you can do better than Zeke as well. And I don’t just mean romantically- you shouldn’t be wasting time with them.”

“What are you saying?”

“Next season, join my team,” Olivia said. “You’re the best damn engineer I’ve ever met. We could use you.”

“No,” I said instantly. 

“You say that now,” Olivia said, cracking her neck, “But I’ll give you some time to reconsider. See you around, Faithy.”

And with that, she walked away. Right as Zeke was coming back, no less. 

“How was it?” he asked as he sat down and handed me a can of cola. 

“It went as well as could reasonably be expected at this point,” I said, heaving a deep sigh in and out my nose. 

“That bad, huh?”

“Yeah,” I said, leaning on him.  

He kissed the top of my head, and I let out a little squeal. Even now that we were together, the butterflies in my stomach came back whenever he touched me. It was a good feeling. 

“WE HAVE A SPLIT DECISION!” our announcer bellowed. “Judge 1 has voted for Pendulum!”

I clenched my jaw and squeezed Zeke’s hand. 

“JUDGE 2 has voted for POLYPHEMUS!”

Zeke and I both leaned forward. Kate had both eyes closed and both fingers crossed as she stood there on stage, waiting. 

“AND JUDGE 3! HAS VOTED! FOR! … POLYPHEMUS!”

Zeke and I both stood up and cheered, and cheered, and cheered for our girl, who in turn had both hands over her mouth in astonishment as she bounced up and down on the balls of her feet. Gregson came forward and offered her a hug, which she readily accepted and returned. 

Once the interviews were over, Zeke and I both ran towards her as she stepped off the stage, wrapping our arms around her and showering her with kisses as we led her away from the camera back towards the pits. 

I caught sight of Olivia standing in the back of the pits with her arms folded over her chest, and I offered her a brief look and a middle finger.

She left, going out the side-exit, and this time, I was glad of it. 

***

Alas, there was no rest for the wicked. As soon as we finished congratulating Katie and helping her load her battered bot into her truck, we had to rush back for our fight. 

Time to deal with the Portmans. 

“You guys ready?” Kate asked, walking with us back towards the arena, still buzzing from her victory. 

“As we’ll ever be,” I said. We re-entered the pits, and walked over to where we had DG stationed… 

… Only to find Mrs. Portman looming over our bot and taking photos while her husband watched and chuckled. 

“Um, what the fuck are you doing?” Zeke said, speeding up, fists balled. 

Mr. Portman intercepted him and put a hand out flat. “Easy there, tough guy,” the middle-aged man said in a voice dripping with that unique condescension men so often had when addressing any male who happened to be younger than them. 

“Answer the question,” Zeke glared. 

“Yeah, I’d like to know why your wife is once again taking photos without asking permission,” I said, glaring. 

“Is that something she does a lot?” Kate asked, glaring just as hard. 

“She’s right here, you know,” Mrs. Portman said. Still taking photos. 

“Gimme the phone,” I said, holding out a hand.

“Excuse you?” Mrs. Portman said, finally being so kind as to look at me. 

“Give me the damn phone.”

“Yeah, I’m not doing that.”

“Then delete the photos!” I said. 

“You cannot be serious,” Mrs. Portman said, shaking her head and holding up her hands in confusion.

“What part of this don’t you get?” Zeke said. “What you are doing is not okay!”

“That’s ridiculous- I’m giving you free advertising right now!” Mrs. Portman said. “Kids these days- so ungrateful.”

“Look, lady,” Zeke said, stepping forward. 

“Watch how you’re speaking to my wife, junior,” Mr. Portman intoned slowly and angrily.

“Well then maybe keep your wife from doing blatantly shitty things!” I said. 

“How is this a shitty thing to do?” Mrs. Portman said. “You two barely have any social media presence. Despite being last year’s champions, most of the community doesn’t know who you are. And you’ve redesigned your robot enough times that it barely has any on-sight recognition. Any publicity is good publicity, especially for a team that’s working at a… Disadvantage like yours is.”

“And what, pray tell, does that mean?” I said, eyes narrow, hands on my hips. 

“Oh, honey,” Mrs. Portman said with an infuriatingly patronizing look and tone. “I think you know full-well what I mean. A girl like you… Well, she can’t exactly say no to favors, now can she?”

Zeke and I looked at each other with matching expressions of abject rage. 

… Only for Katie to chime in with, “Aaaaaannnnd cut. That’s perfect, y’all. Can’t wait to post this.”

All four of us snapped our heads and looked at her, holding up her phone and giving the most hilariously shit-eating I’ve ever seen. 

“Uh… What?” Mr. Portman said. 

“I just filmed this entire conversation,” Kate said, still smiling. “As well as your bot. Up close and personal.”

“Why would you do that?!” Mrs. Portman screeched. 

“Quid pro quo,” Kate said. “Now give us your phone and let us delete all the photos you took, and we’ll do the same. Otherwise, this is all going on the socials. All of them. All of the social medias. And I’ll get my sponsor to repost everything. Sound good?”

Mr. Portman looked ready to throw the first punch. Zeke looked ready to beat him to it. 

Me, though? I just laughed. 

“What are you cackling about?” Mrs. Portman said in monotone. 

“Oh, just how funny it is for the shoe to be on the other foot,” I said. “Now gimme the phone. And we’ll finish this conversation in the battle box. Sound good?”

“No, it does not sound good!” Mr. Portman said. “How dare you little BRATS think you can blackmail your elders like this-”

“And how dare you think that doxxing people and posting photos of their work without permission and potentially exposing all of their weaknesses to the competition is in any way okay?” Kate said, smile never letting up. “Seriously, I thought I was dumb, but y’all have given me a whole-ass confidence boost about my intelligence, because you are both next-level clueless.”

“Little bitch,” Mr. Portman hissed, marching towards Kate. 

Mrs. Portman grabbed her husband by the arm. He looked at her, and she shook her head. Her face was a mask of serenity and stoicism, utterly incomprehensible to anyone save for presumably her husband. Then Mrs. Portman handed me her phone and I deleted all the photos. When it was done, I handed her back her phone, and Mrs. Portman gestured for Kate to hand over hers. 

Kate held up the screen of her smartphone and showed the photos and clips library. “Oh, I was bluffing. I didn’t actually film any of that.”

 Both Portman’s stared at her in wide-eyed contempt. 

“Okay, we’re done,” Kate said, waving at them and smiling from ear to ear. “Buh-bye.”

They both skulked away, and I could hear them grumbling under their breath. 

Zeke and I were both left in awe of Katie, gaping at her in astonishment. 

“So, how was that?” Kate said, the mask finally falling, the dorky, insecure expression that I’d come to recognize as her default returning instantaneously to her beautiful face. “I didn’t go too far, did I?”

“No, no you did good,” Zeke said. “R-real good. I just…”

I went to her and kissed her deeply, standing on my tip-toes and popping back my knee. “I am so hot for you right now,” I said. 

“Heehee,” she giggled. 

“Honestly, same,” Zeke said before swooping in to kiss her himself. 

***

And with that, all that was left was the fight. 

Our announcer ushered us into the box, and I glared at Eileen Portman from across the way as we waited for the signal. 

“ROBOTS! ACTIVATE!”

The bomb-shaped-bot hurdled towards us, launching fire out its nozzle as it closed the gap. We made no attempt to avoid them, and I piloted DG directly towards the enemy, spinning all five of our drills and rotating the faceplate. They collided in a head-on assault, the horizontal rotating buzzsaw scraping sparks off DG while my drills dug into the SSB’s main body. Guren swerved around them and started attacking their wheels. The little guy was just small enough to stay below the rotating buzzsaw’s wrath and made quick work of the back-left wheel. 

I reversed course and pulled away, and SSB came after us wobbling on one back-wheel. G went for the back-right next, but the flamethrower atop SSB spun back and unleashed a torrent of fire in the minibot’s direction.

“Dammit!” Zeke said as Guren was knocked back and swathed in flames. 

That was when SSB turned around in an awkward circle, as if trying to crush the minibot before it could do any more damage. The divided focus gave me an opening, though. I poured on maximum speed and rammed the enemy, tilting the faceplate so that the lower drills would get under the horizontal buzzsaw. The spinning metal spikes tore into the buzzsaw and ripped it off its axis with a sickening screech, while the force of my impact shoved the bot away from G. 

“YES! Thanks, Faithy,” Zeke said. 

“Any time, gorgeous, anytime,” I said, continuing to drill into the exposed metal shell of SSB. I dug five holes into it and kept on attacking, pushing the orbic mass to the vertical hammer in time for it to reign down upon the flamethrower nozzle. The resulting spark amidst the shower of gasoline had a similar effect as it had had on Katie’s bot earlier, but I managed to retreat on time while the great balls of fire engulfed Sparky-Sparky-Boom. 

SSB limped out of the flames, smoke wafting from the top of it, and Zeke and I wasted no time ramming it again. Zeke took out the front-right wheel and I plugged a bunch of new holes into the main body, pushing it back under the hammer in time for another blow from above. 

This one finished crippling it, leaving only a smoking ball of metal where once a robot stood. 

“10! 9!” the countdown began. 

Zeke pulled me around and started our dance before it even ended. I heard Mrs. Portman shout something at me as her loss was formalized, but I ignored her. We’d won, and I’d be damned if I were letting her take that from me. 

***

We left after ensuring our place in the semi-finals. Zeke, Katie, and I all sat on the roof of Zeke and I’s blanket, enjoying a smoke and using a telescope to peer through the smog and city lights and look at the stars. High as a kite and buzzing with exuberance, I laid draped over the laps of my partners, Katie stroking my hair while her own head rested on Zeke’s shoulder. 

“So,” Zeke said, “I have to ask.”

“Do you?” I said.

“Yeah, I do,” he said. “How’d the talk with Olivia go?”

“...”

“Faith, c’mon,” Kate said. “We can take it.”

I took a hit and breathed out a cloud of smoke, sighing alongside it. And I told them. 

Zeke grinded his teeth and Katie grunted very loudly. 

“Well?” I said. 

“Well what?” Kate said. 

“You gonna say it?” I said. 

“Say what?” Zeke asked. 

“You know, that Olivia’s a huge bitch, that I was always too good for her, that you don’t know what I saw in her in the first place?” I said, swinging out of their respective laps and standing up and putting my hands on my hips.

Kate and Zeke looked at each other, then back to me. 

“You aren’t really crazy about us badmouthing your ex,” Kate said. 

“And since you said it for us, we don’t really have to this time,” Zeke pointed out. 

I blinked, and for the first time, I processed the fact that I was mad at Olivia, that I was allowed to be mad at her for what she’d done to me and to the people I care about. “Huh.”

“I mean, I was never really clear on what you saw in her,” Zeke said. “If I’m allowed to say that now.”

“And you were WAY too good for her,” Kate said.

I chuckled, looking at them both fondly. “Yeah, well, I’m pretty comfortable saying I’ve traded up.” I leaned in and gave them both a smooch.

It was then, naturally, that our phones all went off. We checked them, figuring it would be announcing our opponents for next week. 

I gave a beleaguered sigh. “Oh good. We’re fighting Haverfield next.”

“Joy to the fucking world,” Zeke groaned. “Wait, Katie, does that mean you’re-”

“Yup,” she said with a shallow nod and a grunt of frustration. “Speak of the devil.”

She showed us her phone, showed us the message she’d received from the committee:

Team Tooth Fairy. 

Olivia Root.